Until the games begin, late-rising No. 1 seeds Washington and Duke are the big winners of the 2005 NCAA Tournament bracket. The big losers? Syracuse and Wake Forest. No question. Hands down.
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| Chris Paul's suspension hurt Wake Forest more than just the one game. (Getty Images) |
Syracuse was rewarded for its Big East Tournament championship by being given a No. 4 seed -- two rungs below second-seeded Connecticut. While the Huskies finished two games ahead of Syracuse and swept the Orange in the regular season, Syracuse beat UConn in the Big East semifinals.
Faced with a similar situation in the ACC, the selection committee went in another direction. Although Wake Forest (26-5) finished two games ahead of Duke -- the two split in the regular season and didn't play in the ACC Tournament -- the Blue Devils (25-5) received the No. 1 seed and the advantageous pod in Charlotte, N.C.
And what did Wake Forest get? Wake Forest got the shaft. The Deacons had a firm grasp on a No. 1 seed until losing in the ACC quarterfinals to North Carolina State, a loss that should have been mitigated by the one-game suspension of All-America point guard Chris Paul. It was not.
The selection committee punished the Deacons again by sending them to the Cleveland pod, where they face a possible second-round game with West Virginia (21-10). Not only are the Mountaineers one of the hottest teams in the country, but their in-state fans can drive -- easily -- to Cleveland. Wake Forest, the first overall No. 2 seed according to the bracket's S-curve, realistically could be playing a road game in the second round.
While the top four seeds in each region are supposed to be given preferential treatment in terms of geography, selection committee chairman Bob Bowlsby said that didn't happen as much as in years past.
"We were really keeping people close to home last year and the year before, but this year we struggled with that aspect of it," Bowlsby said. "And it was because of the difficulty of the seeding."
Syracuse will be close to home in the Worcester, Mass., pod, but the Orange's overall setup is none too friendly. Along with its unkindly seed and placement in the Region From Hell -- with Duke, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Michigan State and Utah -- Syracuse's first-round game is a potential disaster. It faces America East champion Vermont (24-6), which gave Kansas a battle and has its entire fan base within driving distance of the game. Plus, Vermont power forward Taylor Coppenrath will be difficult matchup -- and vice versa -- with Syracuse's Hakim Warrick.
Selection committee members swear they don't try to get cute with matchups, but they did it again this season by pitting second-seeded Kentucky against 15th-seeded Eastern Kentucky in one first-round game at Indianapolis. Along with the in-state implications, EKU is coached by Travis Ford, who helped Kentucky reach the 1993 Final Four.
Another in-state first-rounder will be played at Worcester when seventh-seeded Charlotte faces N.C. State.
And then there's the whole Duke-North Carolina thing. Located eight miles apart in the North Carolina Triangle, the ACC rivals could shadow each other almost every step of the way in March. Both were sent to Charlotte, N.C., which makes that the toughest ticket of the eight pods. And as the second and third overall No. 1 seeds, UNC and Duke are on pace to meet in the Final Four -- which would be the first NCAA Tournament meeting in series history.
Top-ranked Illinois is lined up opposite Washington in another potential Final Four meeting. Although Illinois is the No. 1 overall seed, the Tar Heels technically received the easiest first-round draw by being matched opposite the winner of Tuesday's play-in game in Dayton, Oakland (12-18) or Alabama A&M (18-13).
